So Election Day has come and gone and many people are thinking what's going to happen next? How are things going to change? What do I do? Well, you are going to do your job. That's what you are going to do! Tomorrow is going to come and you are going to wake up and walk into your classroom and teach your students.
For us in Arizona, there is a new person in charge of public education. This person is bringing their ideas and agendas to the table. Some of us may agree with him and some of us may not. He may change things and drastically improve public education or he may enact new policies that we find disagreeable. No matter what he does, it does not change our number one mission: to positively impact student achievement!
A new law may start next month that says we have to sing Yankee Doodle Dandee every hour on the hour. So, we will do that and try to find a way to tie in a reading lesson on rhyming words or a history lesson that covers American history. Maybe, we will have to begin every school day by hopping around the school on one foot. We'll tie that into a math lesson about measuring the distance.
There have always been different people that have been in charge that have told us how to do our job. The people and policies may change over the years. However, the one constant in our job is our students. And those students deserve the best education we can give them. It is our charge to weather any storm of change and show up in our classrooms full of hope with a smile for our students. Some new policies may not be the best for our students but it is our responsibility to enforce them in a way which causes student to grow.
A few years back, a new policy was enacted which forced my sheltered English immersion (SEI) students out of my classroom for 4 hours everyday. I did not agree with this one bit. However, I still had to find a way to teach those students math and make them feel like they were part of my classroom. It was a challenge but I had a job to do. I had to teach those kids.
This is our job every day. We need to be effective, hopeful and inspiring educators! Will you accept that responsibility or will you be weighed down by every new policy that comes our way?
